APS vs. Engagedly

APS Payroll is an easy to use payroll system, and integrates well with some things such as the APS Hire feature, which handles onboarding, and the eSelfServe timeclock feature. It exports well to Quickbooks, but is only ok with NetSuite. (It works but is a completely manual process and takes a lot of setup.) Our tax registration and filing has been fine and we're always apprised of any tax discrepancies such as small Unemployment overages/underages when filed compared to what was withheld.

Incentivized

Engagedly has a huge range of possibilities and we chose it because of all the functionalities it offers. I'm not marking my rating a 9 or 10 because of the UI. If you're an active user (e.g. in the people department) then you get used to the UI fast enough. However, if you only use it twice per year (like all our other users) it can be difficult to find what you need. That being said, Engagedly offers a truly broad range of HR-related functionalities and we're very happy about that!

Incentivized

• It's fast and intuitive. Our previous contractors were ADP and Paychex and neither were intuitive. Our payroll runs have less errors now than with previous vendors. Payroll prep time is down from 5 hours with ADP to 2 hours with APS for the HR Manager.
• The limiters are great. I'm always afraid of that error that no one caught. Let's assume that you add a $200 limiter to overtime. Any time that a staff member is about to receive more than $200 in overtime for that pay period, a red flag goes up for the HR manager to double check.
• We have 3 programs in public schools that block certain ports. APS has a 2nd feature using GPS so that staff can only check in for their shift while they are in the designated GPS range. Great for someone who has to report to a remote location. Just add the GPS coordinates and they can't check until they get to the project.

• setting up review cycles so they can be repeated and capture all data along the way
• creating the structure of a goal from individual all the way up to the company that is easily tracked
• employee engagement/recognition that our employees are actually excited about

Incentivized

• Reporting - We have six different business units and the reporting is separate for all three. Most reporting I do requires information from all business units so am running six reports and then copying and pasting to get the report I need.
• Multi-state taxes - We have a number of employees who live in New York and work in New Jersey. APS OnLine is designed to accommodate one state withholding so ability to have "worked in" state and "lived in" state taxes withheld went away. This was a shortfall.
• The Carrier connection setup took much longer than expected. After a year, we are still having some issues with some items transferring over to the GL.
• The CA overtime calculation does not calculate after 8 hours per day, only on the 40 per week so we override each week.
• Reporting - when running Benefit reports, it recognizes employees who formerly carried the plan but may have dropped it. To get around this, we have to delete off the employee's record so the history is not readily available.

Incentivized

• performance management - setting this up is quite complicated
• reports in all sections aren't always user friendly
• no help videos in the new U.I
• The survey module is quite basic, you cant set up surveys with answers that lead to different routes, i.e. if no ask this, if yes ask that

Incentivized

I have been using the system for over a year now and feel more comfortable with the functionality of it. I have just recently implemented the benefit administration portion.

Incentivized

The APS Payroll software is very easy to use, and it is easy to train new employees on it. The APS Payroll support team is very helpful and response time is quick. It is easy to enter/change employee information, adjust salaries and benefits, etc. New features have also been added that makes it even better, such as being able to set up your own income/deduction items.

Incentivized

The amount of features available is a lot, but they are hard to navigate due to the UI not being on par with them. Still if used properly, Engagedly is useful to keep track of multiple individuals and their personal goals.

Incentivized

I haven't had any outages

Incentivized

Very quick

Incentivized

I had to learn APS on my own, and the support team held my hand. They are still there when I have an occasional question. Anytime I need support, I can call my rep or send an email and help is on the way, without failure. The support team is awesome

Incentivized

Absolutely! We love engagedly because we haven't faced any kind of lagging or such issues in website. It also has a convenient app through which you can access everything. They are very polite and address to each and every query relating to software which may cause hinderence in the process.

Incentivized

Even if it wasn't in-person on location, we felt like we had our trainer in the room with us.

Incentivized

We had great webinars.

Incentivized

It would have been helpful to understand the phases of the implementation up front so I could have prepared differently for enrollments, billing, and transfer of information to payroll. At the end of the day, I'm happy with the selection and the system and anticipate I will like it better as we go along. We have done a number of other system implementations in the past few years, and this has been pretty painless, however, I've had a few surprises.

Incentivized

We had used ADP for years and had always struggled with their customer service. With over 20 locations (20+ W2s, quarterly filings, etc) we had a lot of questions. We would have to call and sit on hold for long periods of time to talk to someone who couldn't always answer our questions. Then we would get different answers from different people or have to re-explain our issue. It was a major time suck for my employees and they dreaded having to call all of the time. For us - the final straws for us to switch providers were: +Numerous year end filings with incorrect names and addresses (they couldn't keep our 20+ locations separate even though our paperwork was completed correctly) +Incorrect SUI rates for several locations that resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in overpayments which was a lot of money for small hotels. We had sent in numerous requests for them to fix this but it never happened +Lack of care - even though we were having all of these issues, nobody would work with us to get them all resolved and make sure to remedy the situation. We had to seek out a manager to get them resolved but even after this, we still had more issues. Overall - DON'T stick with ADP or even think about switching to them. They might be able to slash prices but their poor customer service and lack of care will cost you in the end. It's not worth it. APS does everything ADP had the capability of but we don't have the errors or headaches we did before. I am really looking forward to this year end!

Incentivized

We used SharePoint Forms to make customized forms for ourselves but it did not work well. Our IT needed to build a system from scratch with a help of an external developer team and they were simply not capable of creating something that complicated. Engagedly already has a great platform and it was a life saver for us that we can just start using after the streamlined implementation period for a brief period of time. With SharePoint, we kept having weekly meetings for over 1.5 years to fix bugs, add necessary functions, etc. after the implementation.

Incentivized

I've never had a problem with the system nor in finding the right information.

Incentivized

• We were able to transition quickly and continue to successfully hire and onboard new hires for several Clubs that opened within weeks of moving to APS.
• We do struggle a bit with the ease of reporting simply because our locations are all under separate EIN and that can make it difficult to easily combine data queried under custom reports, so the volume of reporting that I might wish to be able to push through weekly in order to help address 'real time' trends is not always available.
• The lack of effective dating for position and wage changes does mean that HR and available APS data is not 'real time' accurate and that HR does need to return to the system to update changes well after-the-fact, which is not ideal.

Incentivized

• We haven't used it long enough to calculate ROI (YET), but - we've had EEs who never engaged with performance management before who are excited to use the program
• It has already provided a better framework to set up goals for our teams
• Neg impact - limited feed of info from HRIS - requires some manual data to uploaded.

Incentivized